As Hurricane Gustav begins to bear down on the Gulf Coast, bright social media experts are quickly creating social networks in order to provide information, organize volunteers and assist those displaced from the storm.

Andy Carvin, along with a team of volunteers, has created the social network the Gustav Information Center on Ning.

The network includes just about every piece of information and media needed to assist with the hurricane. Some of them are; blog entries, links to other resources, a google map of evacuation routes, craiglists lists of volunteers, a twitter feed of hurricane information, photographs and videos from the Gulf Coast, and so much more.

If you want better information that you will get from Mainstream Media, join the network and obtain a more accurate picture of the situation. And, better yet, volunteer.

If we had had such robust social media tools three years ago, would we have used them to this extent? Or was the primary lesson learned three years ago from Hurricane Katrina that we can not count on our government and instead ordinary citizens must organize disaster relief efforts? Hurricane Katrina kicked me in the face as to how apathetic our government is toward ordinary citizens and I am SO glad that creative people like Andy Carvin are providing the resources and information that people need in times of crisis.